Dentsu Aegis Network Ltd. is a multinational media and digital marketing communications company headquartered in London, United Kingdom, and a wholly owned subsidiary of Dentsu. Its principal services are communications strategy through digital creative execution, media planning and buying, sports marketing and content creation, brand tracking and marketing analytics. It is organised into eight main divisions: Carat, Dentsu (operations outside of Japan), Dentsu media, mcgarrybowen, Posterscope, Isobar, iProspect and Vizeum. Dentsu Aegis Network manages all the Dentsu inc. owned businesses outside the Japan market, which includes the former Aegis Group business that it acquired in 2013. It also includes 360i, AMNET, Amplifi, Data2Decisions, Mitchell Communications and psLIVE. It has 23,000 people across 110 countries.

Aegis' origins date back to the founding of the media agency Centrale d'Achats Radio, Affichage, Télévision (Carat) in France in 1966. Formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange and a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index, Aegis was acquired by the Japan based advertising group Dentsu in March 2013.

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The Carat business can be traced back to the founding in France in 1966 by Gilbert Gross of the media agency Centrale d'achats Radio, Affichage, Télévision (Carat). Carat was the first media independent agency.

In 1979 WCRS Group was formed as an advertising agency and in 1984 WCRS Group acquired Carat. WCRS Group became one of the fastest growing marketing services groups of the 1980s.[3]

WCRS Group was led by Peter Scott—the ‘S’ of WCRS[4]— who went on to found Aegis in 1989 as a separate company based on the original WCRS media buying division which itself was centred on the French media business Carat.

In 1990, the name of the company was officially changed from WCRS to Aegis Group.[6]

In July 2012 the Japanese advertising company Dentsu agreed to acquire Aegis for £3.16 billion (US$5 billion).[7][8] Aegis shareholders approved the transaction on 16 August 2012[9] and the acquisition was completed on 26 March 2013 following receipt of clearance from the anti-trust authorities of China.[10]

On 1 January 2014, Dentsu Inc established and launched Dentsu Aegis Network which comprises Aegis Business and all the Dentsu owned companies outside of Japan.[11]